Faith: All Saints Day

The New Rules. Familiarize yourself!

The other day I went for a follow up at a hospital here in the Hudson Valley called Good Samaritan, across the street from The Tagaste Monastery (http://mariedoucette.blogspot.com/2013/10/sacred-spaces-tagaste-monastery.html). The link between my vocation and my health care was not lost on me as I stood by the chapel, waiting for the breast care center to open. They held a free event to heighten awareness about breast cancer that I attended, with free mammos, breast exams, and sonograms for women who are under insured or uninsured, as well as applications for free health insurance under Obamacare. 

Faithfully Healing the Earth.

As I stood there waiting, I saw a brochure next to the chapel. It was about the new mission focus for Franciscans. Of course it is. I don't have happy coincidences or lucky accidents like most folks you know. For me, every fortune cookie and seemingly trivial event has import and meaning, and that's just the way it is for me. This little two-sided  pamphlet demarcated the new codifications for Catholics, which is a green mission that includes taking care of our environment and the planet, as part of God's inheritance for us. Like so much of my life, everything just kinda falls into place. That's the power of faith, and that's my message for you today on this All Saints Day. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%27_Day)

Have a closer look for yourself:

http://www.chausa.org/environment/climate-change.

http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/.

Celebrating our good green earth. They have the right idea!

Want to get started on the right path? Here's some inspiration:

http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/recycle-and-repurpose/

 

Gardens: Secret Garden

Children's Garden, at the Good Samaritan Hospital.

Going to the doctor's is hard enough, but it's especially difficult for women and their children. On a recent trip to a local hospital for a free women's healthcare event that promoted breast cancer awareness, 

I saw this little garden out the window, and you know what? It made me feel better, like this was a place that cared about people. One of my favorite charities is Splashes of Hope (http://splashesofhope.org/), an organization that creates beautiful healing spaces, because as artists, they realize that an environment not designed for our senses is one that cuts out a huge part of our life. They give children spaces that make them feel more connected to the outside world by joyfully filling their senses. 

Leonard Nimoy, (SPOCK!) is very active for a hospital in California (http://www.leonardnimoy.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1558:the-healing-arts-&catid=27:interviews&Itemid=14) that did just that: it created galleries out of empty wall space for their patients, so they could stroll down the hallways and look at the art. One women fighting cancer said it gave her a reason to live, because she wanted so badly to get better to go outside to look at a landscape like the one she passed by every day with her portable chemo IV drip in her arm. The greatest gift we can give one another is the gift of hope, a reason to go on living, because we know we're not alone.  

What do your gifts do for others?

http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/gardens-and-green-walls/